Let's get back to how Greece and Sri Lanka are the same MOVING FORWARD as in US cities deemed Foreign Economic Zones.
We talked about the United Nations global neo-liberal policy of OPEN BORDERS and how these far-right wing global Wall Street sell this policy as PRO-IMMIGRANT when it is simply a global slave trade system built by CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA and the global 1%.
Greece was deliberately hit hardest so it could be used as that platform for installing ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE policies like ----MONEY-LESS SOCIETAL STRUCTURES.
First the WORLD BANK/IMF needed to get rid of Greek sovereign citizens and that is what 2008 austerity had as a goal. These several years have seen almost all of Greek young citizens and professional class become EX-PATS. At the same time the Arab Spring---revolutions sparked by WORLD BANK PLAYERS----filled Greece with refugees from those northern African/Middle-East nations. So, today Greece is mostly IMMIGRANT CITIZENS and they will be the ones facing MONEY-LESS BASIC INCOME POLICIES. The Greek citizens who are seniors are dying at a fast rate. Meanwhile, Greece's 1% and their 2% having created this mess with tons of fraud and government corruption have been overseas waiting for these societal transitions to finish.
Where did the money go? How Greece fumbled the refugee crisis
Two years ago, 57,000 refugees were stranded when Europe’s southern borders closed. What followed has been called the most expensive humanitarian response in historyby Daniel Howden and Apostolis Fotiadis
Widad Madrati remembers the first snowfall at Oreokastro in the way most children would, as a thing of wonder. It threw a brilliant white cover over the squalor of a refugee camp pitched in the grounds of a disused warehouse in the hills above Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki. The 17-year-old Syrian did not mind that the water pipe to the outdoor sinks had frozen. She took photographs of the icicles.
The pictures on her phone show nothing of the broken chemical toilets or the discarded, inedible food; nor of the flimsy tents pitched on freezing ground by refugees, such as her family, who arrived too late to find a spot inside the concrete shell of the old warehouse. Instead, the images show children playing in the snow.
Stranded outside the Oreokastro buildings, in a tent dusted with white flakes, the other members of the Madrati family were more realistic about survival and begged the authorities and volunteers for a way out of the camp. A family of four when they left Aleppo, they became five along the way – Widad’s sister Maria was born in Turkey – and had endured worse indignities in Greece than pleading.
The family was among the last to leave their previous temporary home at Idomeni, close to the border with Macedonia, on the overland western Balkan route to northern Europe. They held on in the chaotic encampment for 10 weeks after Greece’s northern border closed in March 2016, in the hope that it would reopen. It did not. The settlement was evacuated and its residents moved to former industrial sites such as Oreokastro and disused army barracks. “I was crying when we left Idomeni,” says Widad. “I felt I was losing hope after so many people had crossed the border and we could not.”
She tells her story in the English she learned from volunteers at Idomeni and then taught to other refugee children at Oreokastro. Her family, who qualify by almost any criteria as refugees, have witnessed much of what has gone wrong in Greece since the country became the gateway to Europe for record numbers of refugees and migrants.
From their arrival at Moria on Lesbos, to Idomeni and Oreokastro, the Madratis’ route since arriving in the EU has been a tour of previously obscure places in Greece that have gained international notoriety for the misery of their conditions. Their ordeal stands in stark contrast to the international funding and energy expended to help people like them.
A sequence of events beginning with the record number of people who flowed into Greece in June 2015 and culminating in the photograph of drowned Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi woke the world to the refugee crisis. The effect of that awakening was to tip the entire humanitarian complex toward Greece, sending resources tumbling out of the developing world into the European Union. It prompted an unprecedented number of international volunteers to descend on the country, the UN refugee agency to declare an emergency inside the European Union, and the EU to deploy its own humanitarian response unit inside Europe for the first time. In the process, it became the most expensive humanitarian response in history, according to several aid experts, when measured by the cost per beneficiary.
Exactly how much money has been spent in Greece by the European Union is much reported but little understood. The online media project Refugees Deeply has calculated that $803m has come into Greece since 2015, which includes all the funds actually allocated or spent, all significant bilateral funding and major private donations.
The biggest pots of money are controlled by the European Commission (EC), the EU’s executive body, which oversees the Asylum Migration Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF) which collectively dedicated $541m to fund Greece’s costs related to border control, asylum and refugee protection. However, since it did not complete the extensive strategic planning required, the Greek government did not receive significant amounts of these funds, necessitating emergency assistance from the commission, channelled through other means. Confusion over the true extent of European spending has been exacerbated by inflated statements from the European commissioner for migration, home affairs and citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, who has regularly cited figures in excess of €1bn, although this amount apparently refers to all available and theoretical funds, not what has actually been allocated or spent.
One senior aid official estimated that as much as $70 out of every $100 spent had been wasted
Nevertheless, the $803m total represents the most expensive humanitarian response in history. On the basis that the money was spent on responding to the needs of all 1.03 million people who have entered Greece since 2015, the cost per beneficiary would be $780 per refugee. However, the bulk of these funds was used to address the needs of at least 57,000 people stranded in Greece after the closure of the borders on 9 March 2016, and on this basis the cost per beneficiary is $14,088.
Officials from the EU’s humanitarian operations directorate, Echo, believe the payout per beneficiary was higher than any of their previous operations. One senior aid official estimated that as much as $70 out of every $100 spent had been wasted.
The haunting image of Alan Kurdi, lying drowned on a Turkish beach on 2 September 2015, was shared more than 20 million times on social media. It prompted an immediate spike in Google searches related to Syria and an avalanche of private donations to charities working on behalf of refugees.
The Swedish Red Cross saw its daily donations leap 55-fold in the week after the image circulated, according to a study led by Paul Slovic at the University of Oregon. At the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a New York-based relief group, response to the photograph crashed its website and drove a surge of public donations. Slovic says that Kurdi’s death “woke the world for a brief time”. It also made it imperative for international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) to show they were responding to events in the eastern Mediterranean.
For the established groups already working in Greece, the sudden influx of funds was both welcome and destabilising. Metadrasi, a Greek organisation known for training interpreters and caring for unaccompanied minors, had experienced staff poached by bigger new arrivals on the scene that could afford far higher salaries.
The head of Metadrasi, Lora Pappa, believes the tide of money transformed refugees into “commodities” and encouraged short-term responses. “They [international organisations] were looking at how to show a presence in Greece. This led to some wasting the chance to spend constructively.”
Her rueful conclusion is that “sometimes money can do more harm than good”.
Among the cautionary tales to emerge from this period was the Apanemo transit centre on Lesbos. A million-dollar facility built by the IRC on the steep hillside close to the main landing beaches during the busiest months in 2015, it was designed to receive 2,000 refugee arrivals per day. Funded by private donations, British aid money and the charitable Radcliffe Foundation, it was hailed by the IRC as a “much-needed reception centre [that] provides crucial services to refugees”.
_________________________________________
Here we see that smiling face of a great big global Wall Street 5% pol and player introducing policy with goals just as in GREECE. In this money-less society an individual ID is tied to ONLINE BANKING ----you swipe it for every purchase---you swipe it for every action---as buses, entry into buildings-----and VOILA US citizens have absolutely no control over any transactions happening in their own US cities---same happening to GREECE-----
Below we see it was CLINTON ERA that global Wall Street started MOVING FORWARD this MONEYLESS SOCIETY----and as always it is to help the poor-----This Baltimore City Council person is just trying to help the poor----and bringing city pride.
'2000
EBT cards were introduced in the late 1990s, a significant change in the way benefits were distributed in the food stamps program.
Significant changes were made to the Food Stamp Program in the early 2000s. Food stamp participation increased dramatically, and eligibility was extended to qualified immigrants and children who were 18 years old and younger. Also during this time period, the stamps used for food purchases were replaced with an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card. The EBT cards, modeled after credit or debit cards, transfer government benefits from a federal account to the SNAP retailer. The cards were instituted to reduce program fraud, ensure ease of use of food benefits by program participants, and to reduce the stigma associated with using food stamps for purchases'.
Obama added to this MONEYLESS SOCIETY by pushing veterans, senior Social Security, and SS Disability to direct deposit. So, at this point the poor---the old -----the disabled-----the government employees----and now we are hearing corporations will only direct deposit working citizens' pay checks----THIS IS ALL ABOUT BEING GREEN---ENVIRONMENTAL .
THIS IS THE SAME POLICY UNFOLDING HERE IN US AS IS NOW BEING FORCED ON GREECE. SINCE THE US IS A FAR-LARGER AND MORE COMPLEX ECONOMY AND SOCIETY IT TOOK CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA WHAT IS HAPPENING IN GREECE THIS PAST DECADE.
Each US Foreign Economic Zone having its own MONEY-LESS ID CARD we see immigrants now being required to have their wages direct deposited already..........
'Fernanda Durand, a spokeswoman for the pro-immigration group CASA, said ID cards have helped new immigrants in Montgomery County'.
Baltimore close to creating municipal ID cards for city residents
Luke BroadwaterContact ReporterThe Baltimore Sun
Coming soon to Baltimore: official government ID cards for people who live in the city.
The City Council is moving ahead with a bill that would require the city to issue a municipal identification card to any resident who asks for one.
The bill's chief sponsor, Councilman Brandon Scott, said the idea is to make it easier for homeless people, immigrants and others who lack a driver's license to obtain services from the city.
It would cut down on unnecessary arrests, Scott said, and bolster a sense of civic pride. Baltimore businesses and cultural institutions could offer discounts to cardholders.
"It's optional, but we're going to encourage people to get one," Scott said. "I hope to be the first to get one."
Scott's legislation grew out of an effort he pushed last year on behalf of Baltimore students. Seeing that they needed four different ID cards to access schools, libraries, recreation centers and buses, Scott introduced legislation to combine those functions into one card.
Now he's trying to expand the program to adults.
"These IDs will be available to homeless people, to immigrants and refugees, to women who are the victims of domestic abuse who can't get their documents in order to get another ID," Scott said.
The legislation hasn't sparked much debate in heavily Democratic Baltimore. It's been praised by groups including the Police Department and the House of Ruth, a shelter of women and children who have suffered domestic abuse.
But elsewhere, such proposals have been fought by those who oppose allowing immigrants in the country without legal documentation, such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which says such cards encourage lawbreaking.
When New York City instituted municipal ID cards in 2014, the group argued the cards would "draw illegal aliens to New York City by making life more practicable" for them.
The new Baltimore ID would have the same effect, a FAIR spokesman said.
"The reason we have so many illegal immigrants living in his country is because we make it easy for them," said Ira Mehlman, the spokesman. "We provide all sorts of benefits for breaking the laws.
"A number of these local governments have lost sight of the reason why we have immigration laws."
Scott disagrees. He said making life easier for immigrants — those who are here with or without legal documentation — is a strength of the legislation. He said immigrants often carry cash because they don't have proper identification to open bank accounts, making them targets for street robberies.
Municipal ID cards are used in New York and Los Angeles. It's believed that the first city to issue municipal ID cards was New Haven, Conn., followed by San Francisco.
The cities have taken different approaches. In Oakland, Calif., for example, the municipal ID cards can function as debit cards. Scott said he would like to explore that option for Baltimore because young people often cash their paychecks at check-cashing businesses that take a significant cut.
Cardholders in New York receive a 25 percent discount at some basketball and hockey games, and free admission to some museums.
Fernanda Durand, a spokeswoman for the pro-immigration group CASA, said ID cards have helped new immigrants in Montgomery County.
"We think it will do the same in Baltimore City," she said. "People who have no IDs are living in the shadows. This is a small way to help them to get out of the shadows. They are hardworking members of the community who contribute to the economy."
The legislation calls for applicants' personal information to be promptly destroyed once they receive an ID.
"We are a sovereign city and a safe city," Scott said. "If someone comes calling about information about our immigrants, we won't have it because we're going to be destroying it."
Durand said the victory of President-elect Donald J. Trump, who pledged during the campaign to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country without legal documentation, has crated fear.
"We wouldn't want the city to be an unwilling participant in their deportation," she said.
The bill has advanced with unanimous support in the City Council. It will receive a final vote Dec. 5.
City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young backs the measure, as does Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Signing the bill is expected to be one of her last acts in office.
The Baltimore Police Department has also endorsed the bill.
Andrew G. Vetter, the department's chief of staff, said officers often face an unenviable situation when confronting low-level offenses on the streets.
If the suspect can show identification, the officer is allowed to issue a citation instead of making an arrest. The officer can't do so if the person has no ID.
An arrest can make it more difficult for that person to get a job, and more likely they will be arrested in the future, Vetter said.
David Rocah, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Maryland, said Scott's legislation has avoided the problems that other ID plans present, such as infringing on civil liberties. It creates no database and the personal information is destroyed, Rocah said.
"This proposal seems aimed at avoiding all of those problems," he said.
The Baltimore Finance Department has yet to determine a cost of issuing the cards. City officials said they are studying it.
Scott said he anticipates the ID cards would be available next year.
__________________________________________
When we shout global 1% are taking WE THE PEOPLE back to DARK AGES----this is what 99% of serfs and slaves did ---they bartered with each other because they had no money. This takes Western nations back two thousand years----to what developing nations' economies.
Here in Baltimore we have global Johns Hopkins pushing the SHARING ECONOMY---THE BNOTES----as part of MOVING FORWARD to 99% of citizens having no access to money. We are led to believe that only the low-income citizens will need this---no, we are sure when our US middle-class is gone---when global labor pool fills US cities with workers coming from developing nations-----this will be EVERYONE IN AND NO ONE OUT---BLACK, WHITE, AND BROWN CITIZEN.
Marketwatch makes this seem just what those Greek citizens wanted----no what? There have been massive protests for years by Greek citizens who do not want this---it is MOVING FORWARD by a FAKE MARXIST leader pretending this is all left social progressive.
The folks trying to build these structures are those same global 2% and I see these global 2% getting TIRED OF MOVING FORWARD.
Why Greeks are ditching the euro for digital barter systems
Published: Apr 11, 2016 3:20 p.m. ET
By
EllieIsmailidou
Markets reporter
When Makis Gounaris, a financial consultant based in Athens, decided to hire Spartan Security Ltd. to protect his apartment in September, he was told to choose from three payment options: cash, credit, or barter.
Gounaris paid his entire bill in “TradePoints” using Greek barter network TradeNow.
“It was a good deal,” said Gounaris, who was general secretary for public property at the Greek Ministry of Finance between 2012 and 2015. “I had already gathered quite a few TradePoints by bartering my old glasses, a digital piano and an electric razor.”
Such deals are increasingly common in Greece. As the country has moved into the latest chapter of its economic redevelopment, a barter economy that grew in popularity amid last summer’s strict capital controls has matured into what proponents say could be framework for a cashless economy.
Ellie Ismailidou/MarketWatch
Makis Gounaris, right, hired Spartan Security using “TradePoints.”The controls have gradually lifted over the past few months, returning some normalcy to Greek economic life. And so while Greeks used barter networks to trade goods and services at times when few had ready cash at the peak of the controls, they use them now with resources scarce and the country battling a bailout impasse that requires further austerity.
It is the perfect time for barter to evolve from a form of crisis therapy to a sustainable alternative for the economy, advocates and enthusiasts say. But for that to happen, they argue, they must organize the more than 200 networks currently operating in Greece into a functioning system of cashless commerce, attracting business participants to build scale and reach.
A first step in that direction took place in October after a committee of barter supporters based in Athens put out a call for a nationwide meeting of collaborative-economy networks. Around 2,000 representatives showed up for what became a “national solidarity and shared-economy conference.”
Ellie Ismailidou/MarketWatch
Representatives from Greek barter and solidarity networks met last year in Athens.They will meet again in May in a bid to organize groups by industry — health, food, energy and technology — and lay the foundation of a broad cashless economic system.
“It is no longer about saving a few euros toward next month’s rent,” said Christina Papadopoulou, a founding member of the 3,500-member Athens Time Bank, in which professionals exchange services using an hour of their time as the currency.
A shift to a cashless society
Barter systems often emerge from monetary societies after unforeseen events make money scarce, historians say: After Rome fell, for example Europeans used barter as a substitute for Roman currency.
Variants exist around the world, from Qatar to New York state, and the Athens Time Bank is modeled after one in the San Francisco Bay Area. In Greece, its growth sprang out of necessity in the early days of the country’s financial crisis, spiking in popularity last summer when daily ATM withdrawals were capped at 60 euros, or about $65.
Over 200 groups have been created since the financial crisis began in 2010, according to antallaktiki.gr, a Greek barter group aggregator. They include local-trade cooperatives; grass-roots solidarity groups, such as a hospital in Athens that serves more than 100 people a day on donated supplies and time; online-barter auctions that resemble eBay; and time banks.
Some networks practice pure barter, or a direct exchange of goods. Most have adopted some type of unit that approximates the value of goods or services. The networks operate across the country, reaching into some of its more remote islands, and span all areas of commerce.
Tradenow is for electronic devices, books and CDs; time banks boast doctors, electricians, yoga teachers and psychotherapists, among others; and farmers use the agricultural union of Lamia to trade produce and agricultural machinery.
Barter networks have proven essential as Greece continues to battle through an economic crisis that is far from over. The country averted an exit from the eurozone in July by passing sweeping austerity measures in exchange for bailout funding, but its economy hasn't recovered.
One in five Greeks remains unemployed, while Greek banks are incurring billions of euros in losses, cutting back on credit for business and households. Meanwhile, 52% of all small businesses are threatened with shutdown — more than during last summer’s capital controls — according to a recent survey by the Greek Chamber of Commerce.
Antallaktiki.gr
There are around 250 bartering and cooperative-economy networks operating across Greece, including remote islands.In the background, a humanitarian crisis looms over the country: More than 50,000 refugees are stranded in Greece after fleeing the Syrian conflict.
Stumbling blocks to wider adoption
While the number of trading networks and participants in Greece has jumped in the past year, they still need more size and activity to become a large-scale driver of economic activity, according to economists and barter experts.
“Barter networks have not yet reached the large-scale participation that would present a viable alternative for the economy,” said Gounaris in a February interview.
A few bartering services have managed to attract Greeks through appeals to solidarity. Alexandros Bellos, who recently used TradeNow to exchange an electric vacuum cleaner for a pound of homemade chocolate truffles, said he appreciated the opportunity to connect with others at a time when many are struggling.
Ellie Ismailidou/MarketWatch
Alexandros Bellos exchanges his vacuum cleaner for chocolate truffles baked by Stefania Tekou.“It’s not like I can’t afford to buy truffles,” Bellos said. “It is about making use of what I no longer need while making a new friend.”
But to become essential, barter networks must offer more than fun, according to Rachel Botsman, a researcher and writer who has taught a course on the collaborative economy at Oxford University.
“When systems that involve bartering, sharing and swapping emerge, they can be perceived as what people need to do because of lack of choice,” Botsman said. “They must shift from being seen as things people use out of necessity to things people use for broader reasons — such as convenience, efficiency and quality.”
She pointed to companies like Airbnb and Uber, which began as cheap alternatives to hotels and taxis but eventually revolutionized consumer perception of those industries.
Some network organizers have sought to jump-start activity on their platforms, bidding to attract more business participation in much the same fashion that eBay EBAY, +0.16% and Amazon AMZN, +0.26% managed to attract thousands of businesses to sell their products on their platform.
That has led to both growth and challenges. “Private corporations love the idea — but when it comes to the actual implementation, they are reluctant to let go of their euros,” said Tradenow founder Yiannis Deligiannis.
Tradenow
Tradenow founder, Yiannis Deligiannis, says getting businesses to join a barter marketplace is key to scaling it.To make it easier for companies to join, Tradenow, which features 29,000 registered members, introduced a hybrid system — in which businesses can offer their product or service priced in TradePoints, euros or a combination — in early 2015. About 400 companies use Tradenow, according to Deligiannis.
One is Spartan Security, which joined in 2014, as Greece had lost 25% of its gross domestic product after four years of economic crisis. Spartan’s hope, according to marketing manager Matina Karabatsou, was to “tap new demographics and grow its client base to counter the negative effects of the financial crisis.”
Tradenow has helped Spartan grow its client base by about 2%, according to Karabatsou. Meanwhile, the company uses TradePoints to buy cleaning services and online advertisements.
But the hybrid system has also led to complications for Tradenow: The company has honored a one-to-one exchange rate between points and euros, meaning that one point is theoretically supposed to “buy” products and services sold on the platform for one euro.
That could hurt the company, as the unofficial point-to-euro exchange rate has fallen by about 75% since it launched in late 2012. That, combined with laws that require companies to pay a 23% value-added tax, or VAT, on all revenue in euros, means companies may lose money by using points.
That makes barter a tough sell for some businesses as the economic crisis has continued to ravage business investment and loans. While optimistic, barter network representatives have been hit with a harsh reality check as the companies whose adoption is crucial to the growth of their services have moved cautiously.
“The real problem never really was the capital controls,” Deligiannis said. “Capital controls can get lifted — but if people have no capital, that makes no difference.”
This story was first published on March 29, 2016.
_______________________
Silicon Valley CA of course is leading the way as is NYC----here we have ONE WORLD UK-----we see SOUTH KOREA going money-less---all the most hyper global neo-liberal nations. It is not a coincidence that the regions tied to pushing these massive global Wall Street frauds are now indeed leading towards this MONEY-LESS SOCIETY.
There are global shouts from 99% educating as to why this is very, very, very bad ---the extreme of far-right wing authoritarian ---and it will lead to extreme wealth extreme poverty of 99% .
UK moves towards cashless society
Some of us have already done away with cash
Globally, countries that almost exclusively use cash most often do so because they don’t have the infrastructure in place to support electronic payments GettyThe tooth fairy’s days are numbered.
Pocket change may soon be completely replaced by electronic payments in the UK after reports that last year, for the first time, the majority of payments were made without cash – either on the internet or phone, or through electronic payments and cheques.
The proportion of cash payments was less than half the total number of payments made last year, falling from 52 per cent in 2013 to 48 per cent in 2014 for consumers, businesses and financial organisations combined, according to the Payments Council.
Non-cash payments are expected to overtake cash payments by consumers for the first time next year. The idea of a completely cashless society is not so far off.
Some of us already cashless. Dave Birch, author of 'Identity Is The New Money' said that young, middle class women are most likely to have made the transition to electronic payments.
He said poorer people are more likely to use cash – meaning they get caught with cash machine charges and are unable to get the best deals online.
Cash is also used for money laundering and tax evasion. "Cash is bad for society in that respect," said Birch.
"In countries that are already mostly cashless such as Denmark, Finland and Sweden, the total cost to the economy of the payment system is less," said Birch.
Birch said that for the UK to become entirely cashless, the government would have to get behind the idea with policy changes.
Countries that almost exclusively use cash most often do so because they don’t have the infrastructure in place to support electronic payments. Some, like Italy and Greece, still prefer to use cash for cultural reasons.
_______________________________________________
WOW----it's all about global 1% and global banking wanting to show its 99% human capital LOVE
Know what? It would seem REALLY SPIRITUAL if those pesky global 1% and their 2% were the ones giving up the money----seems LYING, CHEATING, AND STEALING TO GET ALL THE WORLD'S MONEY----isn't having the VENUS PROJECT showing those global 1% LOVE.
The Moneyless Society – Love As The New Currency
How can it be? The moneyless society. It is very difficult to imagine, but I have been trying to do just that for the last couple of years. Basically, since I heard of The Venus Project and a resource based economy.
No money would really simplify a lot of things. My whole life, basically. Well, not only mine, but everyone’s. No need to set a price on anything. No need to pay for anything.
If there were no money. I could
In other words, instead of money, one would get ‘Love’ in return for what one does. This love can be the joy one feels from doing it, the feelings of gratitude one gets from others, the feeling of completion when one finishes a task well done, or the feeling of happiness from being among the plants one has tended and now grows abundantly.
People need something in return from doing anything. And this something can be nothing less than Love in a moneyless society. Of course, one could give each other gifts and such, but what we are all after is that ultimate feeling of fulfillment, joy, happiness, bliss, excitement, or in one word: Love.
The ultimate feeling of Love (fulfillment, joy, happiness, bliss, excitement, etc) is actually what we all seek in money. We think that when we get unlimited access to money, we will feel the bliss we are missing in our lives. So, with a moneyless society it is important to be aware that what we are seeking is Love, and this love is found in all the tasks we are doing and things we are producing and sharing.
For a resource based economy to work we need to have a new currency, and this currency might just as well be Love, since this is the ultimate currency. With Love as the currency we can actually start today already. We don’t need to wait for technology to develop, or leaders to decide.
Of course, for Love to work as a currency we have to snap out of the value system we have in place today. We have to snap out of our egos, that never gives anything for free, but only asks ‘what’s in it for me?’. Well, actually, the ego can still ask ‘what’s in it for me?’ in a Love Based Society, because when one gives and shares with Love, Love will be given in return in abundance. THAT’S what’s in it for you.
Update:
When I talk about getting Love in the article, I do not mean that one gets Love back directly from the person one is giving to. One will get Love (meaning fulfillment, joy, etc…) from the act of doing itself (giving is also an act of doing), as long as it is something one has a desire to do. And then, where does that Love come from? It can only come from the Creator. And, beware, the Creator in this case, is you, or your ‘higher self’. In other words, you are giving to yourself.
So, doing something one loves doing, something that gives fulfillment and joy, is the same as ‘receiving for the sake of bestowing’. Because when one does something only for the Love of it, what else can be the reason for doing it? One is receiving fulfillment, joy, Love…for what? Of course, for the desire to be fulfilled, for the desire to fulfill the Creator, which is you. And everyone has a conscious or unconscious drive towards this, because this is the basic meaning of Life.
So, everyone is doing this all the time, because this is what brings the most fulfillment to people. But it might also be done unconsciously most of the time. And one thing that stops people from truly being conscious about this is the mindset that the monetary system has created. The mindset that say’s that ‘I have to get something back to give something to you’. It is not only the monetary system that has created this, but also the ‘survival instinct’ we all seem to have. This instinct is produced by forgetting that we are not really our human bodies, but rather eternal consciousness(es) experiencing human life.
When everyone becomes conscious about this, it will be the end of money, because no money would have to change hands anymore. Nothing would be demanded in return for anything, since the Love would be an intrinsic reward in everything. And being conscious about this and ending the monetary system goes hand in hand.
__________________________________________
This is why we shout-----watch those international labor union leaders------this scheme of money-less society and taking the Western nations down to third world level as a ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE GLOBAL CORPORATE TRIBUNAL RULE came about in earnest in 1960s---1970s. This is when our labor unions went global as US corporations moved overseas.
Indeed, back in the DARK AGES trade guilds did barter because their members were so poor. This is NOT THE POPULIST REVOLUTION FOR THE 99% FOLKS----this is MOVING FORWARD global 1% --------
From Clinton era forward when US corporations went overseas en force---our labor unions went global as well----they started working for the INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION ---the United Nations branch of global corporate labor management.
WE WILL HEAR OUR INTERNATIONAL LABOR UNIONS CHAMPION BASIC INCOME----WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION HEALTH POLICY-----GLOBAL COMMONER CORE------AND THESE FAR-RIGHT WING LIBERTARIAN MARXIST LEADERS WILL PRETEND MONEYLESS BARTERING SOCIETIES ARE LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE.
Are a moneyless society and a bloodless revolution possible?; Right to Challenge;
People and Power in the Steelworkers Union.
By John Herling. 415 pp. New York: Harper & Row. $12.50
By A. H. RASKINFEB. 20, 1972
February 20, 1972, Page 6 The New York Times Archives
Behind the fraternal facade of a movement in which every carrier of a union card is automatically “brother” often rage intrigues of such malevolence that Machiavelli would be hard pressed to make business agent and Benedict Arnold, shop steward. In this fascinating book John Herling, who has devoted a lifetime to affectionate observation of labor's rise (or descent) from penury to power, provides a close‐up view of two decades of infighting in one of the country's strongest unions, the 1.2million‐member United Steelworkers of America.
The steel union was a child of the early New Deal, V.rith its accent on better break for “the forgotten man” — an accent translated in the feudal bastions of the mass‐production industries into the slogan, “President Roosevelt wants you to join a union.” But the steel union had another progenitor, the United Mine Workers, most monolithic of labor organizations, with absolute rule concentrated in its majestic president, John L. Lewis.
__________________________________________
'There have been test runs of this Rogoff-Buiter Economic Totalitarianism to see if the idea works'.
Here we see where these MONEY-LESS policies come----it is global 1% ----so if any labor and justice organization sells this as a left populist movement-----SEND THE LEADERS OF THAT ORGANIZATION PACKING.
MOVING FORWARD has the goal of pushing 99% of US citizens to unemployment------robotics---et al----and this is what global 1% want to see as a societal structure. Know what? It is easier to throw these 5% and their 1% IN JAIL------and return to being a free democratic capitalistic society-----GO LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE AND NOT FAR-RIGHT WING LIBERTARIAN MARXIST EXTREME WEALTH EXTREME POVERTY.
You can bet the global 1% and their 2% are not going money-less----remember, SMART CITIES SMART ENERGY GRID----GLOBAL BIG AG ----combined with CLIMATE CHANGE and depleted contaminated fresh water does not bode well for building any long term NEW SOCIETAL STRUCTURE especially one that shakes the foundations of several centuries of ENLIGHTENMENT-----AGE OF REASON----ANY AGE BUT THE DARK AGES.
Why The Powers That Be Are Pushing A Cashless Society
Posted on May 4, 2015 by WashingtonsBlog
We Can’t Rein In the Banks If We Can’t Pull Our Money Out of Them
Martin Armstrong summarizes the headway being made to ban cash, and argues that the goal of those pushing a cashless society is to prevent bank runs … and increase their control:
The central banks are … planning drastic restrictions on cash itself. They see moving to electronic money will first eliminate the underground economy, but secondly, they believe it will even prevent a banking crisis. This idea of eliminating cash was first floated as the normal trial balloon to see how the people take it. It was first launched by Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University and Willem Buiter, the chief economist at Citigroup. Their claims have been widely hailed and their papers are now the foundation for the new age of Economic Totalitarianism that confronts us. Rogoff and Buiter have laid the ground work for the end of much of our freedom and will one day will be considered the new Marx with hindsight. They sit in their lofty offices but do not have real world practical experience beyond theory. Considerations of their arguments have shown how governments can seize all economic power are destroy cash in the process eliminating all rights. Physical paper money provides the check against negative interest rates for if they become too great, people will simply withdraw their funds and hoard cash. Furthermore, paper currency allows for bank runs. Eliminate paper currency and what you end up with is the elimination of the ability to demand to withdraw funds from a bank.
***
In many nations, specific measures have already been taken demonstrating that the Rogoff-Buiter world of Economic Totalitarianism is indeed upon us. This is the death of Capitalism. Of course the socialists hate Capitalism and see other people’s money should be theirs. What they cannot see is that Capitalism is freedom from government totalitarianism. The freedom to pursue the field you desire without filling the state needs that supersede your own.
There have been test runs of this Rogoff-Buiter Economic Totalitarianism to see if the idea works. I reported on June 21, 2014 that Britain was doing a test run. A shopping street in Manchester banned cash as part of an experiment to see if Brits would accept a cashless society. London buses ended accepting cash payments from July 2014. Meanwhile, Currency Exchange dealers began offering debt cards instead of cash that they market as being safer to travel with. The Chorlton, South Manchester experiment was touted to test customers and business reaction to the idea for physical currency will disappear inside 20 years.
France passed another Draconian new law that from the police parissummer of 2015 it will now impose cash requirements dramatically trying to eliminate cash by force. French citizens and tourists will then only be allowed a limited amount of physical money. They have financial police searching people on trains just passing through France to see if they are transporting cash, which they will now seize. Meanwhile, the new French Elite are moving in this very same direction. Piketty wants to just take everyone’s money who has more than he does. Nobody stands on the side of freedom or on restraining the corruption within government. The problem always turns against the people for we are the cause of the fiscal mismanagement of government that never has enough for themselves.
In Greece a drastic reduction in cash is also being discussed in light of the economic crisis. Now any bill over €70 should be payable only by check or credit card – it will be illegal to pay in cash. The German Baader Bank founded in Munich expects formally to abolish the cash to enforce negative interest rates on accounts that is really taxation on whatever money you still have left after taxes.
***
Complete abolition of cash threatens our very freedom and rights of citizens in so many areas.
***
Paper currency is indeed the check against negative interest rates. We need only look to Switzerland to prove that theory. Any attempt to impose say a 5% negative interest rates (tax) would lead to an unimaginably massive flight into cash. This was already demonstrated recently by the example of Swiss pension funds, which withdrew their money from the bank in a big way and now store it in vaults in cash in order to escape the financial repression. People will act in their own self-interest and negative interest rates are likely to reduce the sales of government bonds and set off a bank run as long as paper money exists.
Obviously, government and bankers are not stupid. The only way to prevent such a global bank run would be the total prohibition of paper money. This is unlikely, both in Switzerland and in the United States because the economies are dominated there by a certain “liberalism” to some extent but also because their currencies also circulate outside their domestic economies. The fact that but the question of the cash ban in the context of a global conference with the participation of the major central banks of the US and the ECB will be discussed, demonstrates by itself that the problem is not a regional problem.
Nevertheless, there is a growing assumption that the negative interest rate world (tax on cash) is likely to increase dramatically in Europe in particular since it is socialism that is collapsing. Government in Brussels is unlikely to yield power and their line of thinking cannot lead to any solution. The negative interest rate concept is making its way into the United States at J.P. Morgan where they will charge a fee on excess cash on deposit starting May 1st, 2015. Asset holdings of cash with a tax or a fee in the amount of the negative interest rate seems to be underway even in Switzerland.
***
The movement toward electronic money is moving at high speed and this says a lot about the state of the financial system. The track record of the major financial institutions is nearly perfect – they are always caught on the wrong side when a crisis breaks, which requires their bailouts. The fact that we have already seen test runs with theory-balloons flying, the major financial institutions are in no shape to withstand another economic decline.
For depositors, this means they really need to grasp what is going on here for unless they are vigilant, there is a serious risk of losing everything. We must understand that these measures will be implemented overnight in the middle of a banking crisis after 2015.75. The balloons have taken off and the discussions are underway. The trend in taxation and reduction of cash seems to be unstoppable. Government is not prepared to reform for that would require a new way of thinking and a loss of power. That is not a consideration. They only see one direction and that is to take us into the new promised-land of economic totalitarianism.
People can’t pull cash out of their bank accounts – for political reasons, because they’ve lost confidence in the bank, or because “bail-ins” are enacted – if cash is banned.
The Financial Times argued last year that central banks would be the real winners from a cashless society:
Central bankers, after all, have had an explicit interest in introducing e-money from the moment the global financial crisis began…
***
The introduction of a cashless society empowers central banks greatly. A cashless society, after all, not only makes things like negative interest rates possible, it transfers absolute control of the money supply to the central bank, mostly by turning it into a universal banker that competes directly with private banks for public deposits. All digital deposits become base money.
The Government Can Manipulate Digital Accounts More Easily than Cash
Moreover, an official White House panel on spying has implied that the government is manipulating the amount in people’s financial accounts.
If all money becomes digital, it would be much easier for the government to manipulate our accounts.
Indeed, numerous high-level NSA whistleblowers say that NSA spying is about crushing dissent and blackmailing opponents … not stopping terrorism.
This may sound over-the-top … but remember, the government sometimes labels its critics as “terrorists“. If the government claims the power to indefinitely detain – or even assassinate – American citizens at the whim of the executive, don’t you think that government people would be willing to shut down, or withdraw a stiff “penalty” from a dissenter’s bank account?
If society becomes cashless, dissenters can’t hide cash. All of their financial holdings would be vulnerable to an attack by the government.
This would be the ultimate form of control. Because – without access to money – people couldn’t resist, couldn’t hide and couldn’t escape.
__________________________________________
We are not going to discuss the economic collapse in detail as we have ---we will remind folks of the goal of deliberately sending community banks and credit unions into bankruptcy---yes, those labor union credit unions too.
This plan moves all US citizens to only global Wall Street banks while global Wall Street banks are MOVING FORWARD to closing their brick and mortar community banks and going to ONLINE ONLY. We saw that happening with Wells Fargo as usual in CALIFORNIA. So, CA is leading in introducing BASIC INCOME---COMMONER CORE-----WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SINGLE-PAYER---ONLINE BANKING ONLY---THE MONEY-LESS SOCIETY---
When we shout at our Baltimore media to be JOURNALISTS and discuss these goals --we are told by 5% to the 1% THAT'S WHAT THEY ARE DOING IN CALIFORNIA. TRUMP didn't bring this coming economic crash it will bring strong austerity with an installed far-right wing Trump and Congress.
ALL PLANNED MOVING FORWARD---ask your CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA pol or those pesky global Wall Street Baltimore Development 'labor and justice' organizations.
The 5% and their 1% think all this is very funny-----
OH, REALLY?????
FAKE FEELING THE BERNERS-----capturing our REAL left FDR social progressive revolution. We knew Bernie may flip as an establishment candidate---don't fall for more POSERS-----let's get busy locally to stop MOVING FORWARD IN US CITIES DEEMED FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONES.
With Dow 20K passed, $20 trillion on the national debt is next
Jeff Cox | @JeffCoxCNBCcom
Wednesday, 25 Jan 2017 | 12:39 PM ETCNBC.com
Mnuchin: Honoring U.S. debt most important thing
Thursday, 19 Jan 2017 | 12:27 PM ET | 04:27
While Wall Street celebrates the Dow hitting 20,000, there is another "20" looming that could carry significantly darker overtones.
The U.S. is just weeks away from passing the $20 trillion mark in total public debt outstanding — the "national debt," as it is more widely known.
Though general concern about containing debt and deficits has waned as the nation has looked for ways to stimulate the sluggish, post-recession economy, that $20 trillion milestone could grab at least some attention.
"While the party hats are out for 20K on the Dow, that $20 trillion in debt is really salient," said economist and debt hawk Michael Pento of Pento Portfolio Strategies. Pento has been predicting a bond market crash that would come with a collapse in demand and the weight of eventually rising rates that will push up the cost to finance American debt.
Debt nearly doubled under former President Barack Obama, who presided over it mushrooming from $10.6 trillion to $19.9 trillion by the time he left office last week. Though he's only been in office for less than a week, President Donald Trump has seen the debt rise another $2 billion.
"It has become all too commonplace to borrow not for productive investments or for wherever we are in the business cycle ... but because people don't want to pay the bills and have found it politically expedient not to do so." -Maya MacGuineas, president, Committee for a Responsible Federal BudgetThe current total as of Monday, in exact numbers, is $19,949,687,366,998, according to the Treasury Department. With the U.S. expected to run a budget deficit in 2017 of $559 billion, the $50.3 billion or so needed to break $20 trillion should happen relatively soon.
"The massive debt is really a reflection of the unwillingness of our political leaders to make any tough decisions or deal with trade-offs," Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a phone interview. "It has become all too commonplace to borrow not for productive investments or for wherever we are in the business cycle ... but because people don't want to pay the bills and have found it politically expedient not to do so."
There are two numbers at play when talking about the national debt — debt held by the public and intragovernmental holdings. The latter debt includes money the government essentially owes itself, like when the Treasury borrows from other funds to make entitlement payments. That total is about $5.5 trillion, while the public debt, which includes all other government debt, is $14.4 trillion.
We talked about the United Nations global neo-liberal policy of OPEN BORDERS and how these far-right wing global Wall Street sell this policy as PRO-IMMIGRANT when it is simply a global slave trade system built by CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA and the global 1%.
Greece was deliberately hit hardest so it could be used as that platform for installing ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE policies like ----MONEY-LESS SOCIETAL STRUCTURES.
First the WORLD BANK/IMF needed to get rid of Greek sovereign citizens and that is what 2008 austerity had as a goal. These several years have seen almost all of Greek young citizens and professional class become EX-PATS. At the same time the Arab Spring---revolutions sparked by WORLD BANK PLAYERS----filled Greece with refugees from those northern African/Middle-East nations. So, today Greece is mostly IMMIGRANT CITIZENS and they will be the ones facing MONEY-LESS BASIC INCOME POLICIES. The Greek citizens who are seniors are dying at a fast rate. Meanwhile, Greece's 1% and their 2% having created this mess with tons of fraud and government corruption have been overseas waiting for these societal transitions to finish.
Where did the money go? How Greece fumbled the refugee crisis
Two years ago, 57,000 refugees were stranded when Europe’s southern borders closed. What followed has been called the most expensive humanitarian response in historyby Daniel Howden and Apostolis Fotiadis
- Thursday 9 March 2017 01.00 EST Last modified on Thursday 11 May 2017 07.29 EDT
Widad Madrati remembers the first snowfall at Oreokastro in the way most children would, as a thing of wonder. It threw a brilliant white cover over the squalor of a refugee camp pitched in the grounds of a disused warehouse in the hills above Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki. The 17-year-old Syrian did not mind that the water pipe to the outdoor sinks had frozen. She took photographs of the icicles.
The pictures on her phone show nothing of the broken chemical toilets or the discarded, inedible food; nor of the flimsy tents pitched on freezing ground by refugees, such as her family, who arrived too late to find a spot inside the concrete shell of the old warehouse. Instead, the images show children playing in the snow.
Stranded outside the Oreokastro buildings, in a tent dusted with white flakes, the other members of the Madrati family were more realistic about survival and begged the authorities and volunteers for a way out of the camp. A family of four when they left Aleppo, they became five along the way – Widad’s sister Maria was born in Turkey – and had endured worse indignities in Greece than pleading.
The family was among the last to leave their previous temporary home at Idomeni, close to the border with Macedonia, on the overland western Balkan route to northern Europe. They held on in the chaotic encampment for 10 weeks after Greece’s northern border closed in March 2016, in the hope that it would reopen. It did not. The settlement was evacuated and its residents moved to former industrial sites such as Oreokastro and disused army barracks. “I was crying when we left Idomeni,” says Widad. “I felt I was losing hope after so many people had crossed the border and we could not.”
She tells her story in the English she learned from volunteers at Idomeni and then taught to other refugee children at Oreokastro. Her family, who qualify by almost any criteria as refugees, have witnessed much of what has gone wrong in Greece since the country became the gateway to Europe for record numbers of refugees and migrants.
From their arrival at Moria on Lesbos, to Idomeni and Oreokastro, the Madratis’ route since arriving in the EU has been a tour of previously obscure places in Greece that have gained international notoriety for the misery of their conditions. Their ordeal stands in stark contrast to the international funding and energy expended to help people like them.
A sequence of events beginning with the record number of people who flowed into Greece in June 2015 and culminating in the photograph of drowned Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi woke the world to the refugee crisis. The effect of that awakening was to tip the entire humanitarian complex toward Greece, sending resources tumbling out of the developing world into the European Union. It prompted an unprecedented number of international volunteers to descend on the country, the UN refugee agency to declare an emergency inside the European Union, and the EU to deploy its own humanitarian response unit inside Europe for the first time. In the process, it became the most expensive humanitarian response in history, according to several aid experts, when measured by the cost per beneficiary.
Exactly how much money has been spent in Greece by the European Union is much reported but little understood. The online media project Refugees Deeply has calculated that $803m has come into Greece since 2015, which includes all the funds actually allocated or spent, all significant bilateral funding and major private donations.
The biggest pots of money are controlled by the European Commission (EC), the EU’s executive body, which oversees the Asylum Migration Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF) which collectively dedicated $541m to fund Greece’s costs related to border control, asylum and refugee protection. However, since it did not complete the extensive strategic planning required, the Greek government did not receive significant amounts of these funds, necessitating emergency assistance from the commission, channelled through other means. Confusion over the true extent of European spending has been exacerbated by inflated statements from the European commissioner for migration, home affairs and citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, who has regularly cited figures in excess of €1bn, although this amount apparently refers to all available and theoretical funds, not what has actually been allocated or spent.
One senior aid official estimated that as much as $70 out of every $100 spent had been wasted
Nevertheless, the $803m total represents the most expensive humanitarian response in history. On the basis that the money was spent on responding to the needs of all 1.03 million people who have entered Greece since 2015, the cost per beneficiary would be $780 per refugee. However, the bulk of these funds was used to address the needs of at least 57,000 people stranded in Greece after the closure of the borders on 9 March 2016, and on this basis the cost per beneficiary is $14,088.
Officials from the EU’s humanitarian operations directorate, Echo, believe the payout per beneficiary was higher than any of their previous operations. One senior aid official estimated that as much as $70 out of every $100 spent had been wasted.
The haunting image of Alan Kurdi, lying drowned on a Turkish beach on 2 September 2015, was shared more than 20 million times on social media. It prompted an immediate spike in Google searches related to Syria and an avalanche of private donations to charities working on behalf of refugees.
The Swedish Red Cross saw its daily donations leap 55-fold in the week after the image circulated, according to a study led by Paul Slovic at the University of Oregon. At the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a New York-based relief group, response to the photograph crashed its website and drove a surge of public donations. Slovic says that Kurdi’s death “woke the world for a brief time”. It also made it imperative for international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) to show they were responding to events in the eastern Mediterranean.
For the established groups already working in Greece, the sudden influx of funds was both welcome and destabilising. Metadrasi, a Greek organisation known for training interpreters and caring for unaccompanied minors, had experienced staff poached by bigger new arrivals on the scene that could afford far higher salaries.
The head of Metadrasi, Lora Pappa, believes the tide of money transformed refugees into “commodities” and encouraged short-term responses. “They [international organisations] were looking at how to show a presence in Greece. This led to some wasting the chance to spend constructively.”
Her rueful conclusion is that “sometimes money can do more harm than good”.
Among the cautionary tales to emerge from this period was the Apanemo transit centre on Lesbos. A million-dollar facility built by the IRC on the steep hillside close to the main landing beaches during the busiest months in 2015, it was designed to receive 2,000 refugee arrivals per day. Funded by private donations, British aid money and the charitable Radcliffe Foundation, it was hailed by the IRC as a “much-needed reception centre [that] provides crucial services to refugees”.
_________________________________________
Here we see that smiling face of a great big global Wall Street 5% pol and player introducing policy with goals just as in GREECE. In this money-less society an individual ID is tied to ONLINE BANKING ----you swipe it for every purchase---you swipe it for every action---as buses, entry into buildings-----and VOILA US citizens have absolutely no control over any transactions happening in their own US cities---same happening to GREECE-----
Below we see it was CLINTON ERA that global Wall Street started MOVING FORWARD this MONEYLESS SOCIETY----and as always it is to help the poor-----This Baltimore City Council person is just trying to help the poor----and bringing city pride.
'2000
EBT cards were introduced in the late 1990s, a significant change in the way benefits were distributed in the food stamps program.
Significant changes were made to the Food Stamp Program in the early 2000s. Food stamp participation increased dramatically, and eligibility was extended to qualified immigrants and children who were 18 years old and younger. Also during this time period, the stamps used for food purchases were replaced with an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card. The EBT cards, modeled after credit or debit cards, transfer government benefits from a federal account to the SNAP retailer. The cards were instituted to reduce program fraud, ensure ease of use of food benefits by program participants, and to reduce the stigma associated with using food stamps for purchases'.
Obama added to this MONEYLESS SOCIETY by pushing veterans, senior Social Security, and SS Disability to direct deposit. So, at this point the poor---the old -----the disabled-----the government employees----and now we are hearing corporations will only direct deposit working citizens' pay checks----THIS IS ALL ABOUT BEING GREEN---ENVIRONMENTAL .
THIS IS THE SAME POLICY UNFOLDING HERE IN US AS IS NOW BEING FORCED ON GREECE. SINCE THE US IS A FAR-LARGER AND MORE COMPLEX ECONOMY AND SOCIETY IT TOOK CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA WHAT IS HAPPENING IN GREECE THIS PAST DECADE.
Each US Foreign Economic Zone having its own MONEY-LESS ID CARD we see immigrants now being required to have their wages direct deposited already..........
'Fernanda Durand, a spokeswoman for the pro-immigration group CASA, said ID cards have helped new immigrants in Montgomery County'.
Baltimore close to creating municipal ID cards for city residents
Luke BroadwaterContact ReporterThe Baltimore Sun
Coming soon to Baltimore: official government ID cards for people who live in the city.
The City Council is moving ahead with a bill that would require the city to issue a municipal identification card to any resident who asks for one.
The bill's chief sponsor, Councilman Brandon Scott, said the idea is to make it easier for homeless people, immigrants and others who lack a driver's license to obtain services from the city.
It would cut down on unnecessary arrests, Scott said, and bolster a sense of civic pride. Baltimore businesses and cultural institutions could offer discounts to cardholders.
"It's optional, but we're going to encourage people to get one," Scott said. "I hope to be the first to get one."
Scott's legislation grew out of an effort he pushed last year on behalf of Baltimore students. Seeing that they needed four different ID cards to access schools, libraries, recreation centers and buses, Scott introduced legislation to combine those functions into one card.
Now he's trying to expand the program to adults.
"These IDs will be available to homeless people, to immigrants and refugees, to women who are the victims of domestic abuse who can't get their documents in order to get another ID," Scott said.
The legislation hasn't sparked much debate in heavily Democratic Baltimore. It's been praised by groups including the Police Department and the House of Ruth, a shelter of women and children who have suffered domestic abuse.
But elsewhere, such proposals have been fought by those who oppose allowing immigrants in the country without legal documentation, such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which says such cards encourage lawbreaking.
When New York City instituted municipal ID cards in 2014, the group argued the cards would "draw illegal aliens to New York City by making life more practicable" for them.
The new Baltimore ID would have the same effect, a FAIR spokesman said.
"The reason we have so many illegal immigrants living in his country is because we make it easy for them," said Ira Mehlman, the spokesman. "We provide all sorts of benefits for breaking the laws.
"A number of these local governments have lost sight of the reason why we have immigration laws."
Scott disagrees. He said making life easier for immigrants — those who are here with or without legal documentation — is a strength of the legislation. He said immigrants often carry cash because they don't have proper identification to open bank accounts, making them targets for street robberies.
Municipal ID cards are used in New York and Los Angeles. It's believed that the first city to issue municipal ID cards was New Haven, Conn., followed by San Francisco.
The cities have taken different approaches. In Oakland, Calif., for example, the municipal ID cards can function as debit cards. Scott said he would like to explore that option for Baltimore because young people often cash their paychecks at check-cashing businesses that take a significant cut.
Cardholders in New York receive a 25 percent discount at some basketball and hockey games, and free admission to some museums.
Fernanda Durand, a spokeswoman for the pro-immigration group CASA, said ID cards have helped new immigrants in Montgomery County.
"We think it will do the same in Baltimore City," she said. "People who have no IDs are living in the shadows. This is a small way to help them to get out of the shadows. They are hardworking members of the community who contribute to the economy."
The legislation calls for applicants' personal information to be promptly destroyed once they receive an ID.
"We are a sovereign city and a safe city," Scott said. "If someone comes calling about information about our immigrants, we won't have it because we're going to be destroying it."
Durand said the victory of President-elect Donald J. Trump, who pledged during the campaign to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country without legal documentation, has crated fear.
"We wouldn't want the city to be an unwilling participant in their deportation," she said.
The bill has advanced with unanimous support in the City Council. It will receive a final vote Dec. 5.
City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young backs the measure, as does Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Signing the bill is expected to be one of her last acts in office.
The Baltimore Police Department has also endorsed the bill.
Andrew G. Vetter, the department's chief of staff, said officers often face an unenviable situation when confronting low-level offenses on the streets.
If the suspect can show identification, the officer is allowed to issue a citation instead of making an arrest. The officer can't do so if the person has no ID.
An arrest can make it more difficult for that person to get a job, and more likely they will be arrested in the future, Vetter said.
David Rocah, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Maryland, said Scott's legislation has avoided the problems that other ID plans present, such as infringing on civil liberties. It creates no database and the personal information is destroyed, Rocah said.
"This proposal seems aimed at avoiding all of those problems," he said.
The Baltimore Finance Department has yet to determine a cost of issuing the cards. City officials said they are studying it.
Scott said he anticipates the ID cards would be available next year.
__________________________________________
When we shout global 1% are taking WE THE PEOPLE back to DARK AGES----this is what 99% of serfs and slaves did ---they bartered with each other because they had no money. This takes Western nations back two thousand years----to what developing nations' economies.
Here in Baltimore we have global Johns Hopkins pushing the SHARING ECONOMY---THE BNOTES----as part of MOVING FORWARD to 99% of citizens having no access to money. We are led to believe that only the low-income citizens will need this---no, we are sure when our US middle-class is gone---when global labor pool fills US cities with workers coming from developing nations-----this will be EVERYONE IN AND NO ONE OUT---BLACK, WHITE, AND BROWN CITIZEN.
Marketwatch makes this seem just what those Greek citizens wanted----no what? There have been massive protests for years by Greek citizens who do not want this---it is MOVING FORWARD by a FAKE MARXIST leader pretending this is all left social progressive.
The folks trying to build these structures are those same global 2% and I see these global 2% getting TIRED OF MOVING FORWARD.
Why Greeks are ditching the euro for digital barter systems
Published: Apr 11, 2016 3:20 p.m. ET
By
EllieIsmailidou
Markets reporter
When Makis Gounaris, a financial consultant based in Athens, decided to hire Spartan Security Ltd. to protect his apartment in September, he was told to choose from three payment options: cash, credit, or barter.
Gounaris paid his entire bill in “TradePoints” using Greek barter network TradeNow.
“It was a good deal,” said Gounaris, who was general secretary for public property at the Greek Ministry of Finance between 2012 and 2015. “I had already gathered quite a few TradePoints by bartering my old glasses, a digital piano and an electric razor.”
Such deals are increasingly common in Greece. As the country has moved into the latest chapter of its economic redevelopment, a barter economy that grew in popularity amid last summer’s strict capital controls has matured into what proponents say could be framework for a cashless economy.
Ellie Ismailidou/MarketWatch
Makis Gounaris, right, hired Spartan Security using “TradePoints.”The controls have gradually lifted over the past few months, returning some normalcy to Greek economic life. And so while Greeks used barter networks to trade goods and services at times when few had ready cash at the peak of the controls, they use them now with resources scarce and the country battling a bailout impasse that requires further austerity.
It is the perfect time for barter to evolve from a form of crisis therapy to a sustainable alternative for the economy, advocates and enthusiasts say. But for that to happen, they argue, they must organize the more than 200 networks currently operating in Greece into a functioning system of cashless commerce, attracting business participants to build scale and reach.
A first step in that direction took place in October after a committee of barter supporters based in Athens put out a call for a nationwide meeting of collaborative-economy networks. Around 2,000 representatives showed up for what became a “national solidarity and shared-economy conference.”
Ellie Ismailidou/MarketWatch
Representatives from Greek barter and solidarity networks met last year in Athens.They will meet again in May in a bid to organize groups by industry — health, food, energy and technology — and lay the foundation of a broad cashless economic system.
“It is no longer about saving a few euros toward next month’s rent,” said Christina Papadopoulou, a founding member of the 3,500-member Athens Time Bank, in which professionals exchange services using an hour of their time as the currency.
A shift to a cashless society
Barter systems often emerge from monetary societies after unforeseen events make money scarce, historians say: After Rome fell, for example Europeans used barter as a substitute for Roman currency.
Variants exist around the world, from Qatar to New York state, and the Athens Time Bank is modeled after one in the San Francisco Bay Area. In Greece, its growth sprang out of necessity in the early days of the country’s financial crisis, spiking in popularity last summer when daily ATM withdrawals were capped at 60 euros, or about $65.
Over 200 groups have been created since the financial crisis began in 2010, according to antallaktiki.gr, a Greek barter group aggregator. They include local-trade cooperatives; grass-roots solidarity groups, such as a hospital in Athens that serves more than 100 people a day on donated supplies and time; online-barter auctions that resemble eBay; and time banks.
Some networks practice pure barter, or a direct exchange of goods. Most have adopted some type of unit that approximates the value of goods or services. The networks operate across the country, reaching into some of its more remote islands, and span all areas of commerce.
Tradenow is for electronic devices, books and CDs; time banks boast doctors, electricians, yoga teachers and psychotherapists, among others; and farmers use the agricultural union of Lamia to trade produce and agricultural machinery.
Barter networks have proven essential as Greece continues to battle through an economic crisis that is far from over. The country averted an exit from the eurozone in July by passing sweeping austerity measures in exchange for bailout funding, but its economy hasn't recovered.
One in five Greeks remains unemployed, while Greek banks are incurring billions of euros in losses, cutting back on credit for business and households. Meanwhile, 52% of all small businesses are threatened with shutdown — more than during last summer’s capital controls — according to a recent survey by the Greek Chamber of Commerce.
Antallaktiki.gr
There are around 250 bartering and cooperative-economy networks operating across Greece, including remote islands.In the background, a humanitarian crisis looms over the country: More than 50,000 refugees are stranded in Greece after fleeing the Syrian conflict.
Stumbling blocks to wider adoption
While the number of trading networks and participants in Greece has jumped in the past year, they still need more size and activity to become a large-scale driver of economic activity, according to economists and barter experts.
“Barter networks have not yet reached the large-scale participation that would present a viable alternative for the economy,” said Gounaris in a February interview.
A few bartering services have managed to attract Greeks through appeals to solidarity. Alexandros Bellos, who recently used TradeNow to exchange an electric vacuum cleaner for a pound of homemade chocolate truffles, said he appreciated the opportunity to connect with others at a time when many are struggling.
Ellie Ismailidou/MarketWatch
Alexandros Bellos exchanges his vacuum cleaner for chocolate truffles baked by Stefania Tekou.“It’s not like I can’t afford to buy truffles,” Bellos said. “It is about making use of what I no longer need while making a new friend.”
But to become essential, barter networks must offer more than fun, according to Rachel Botsman, a researcher and writer who has taught a course on the collaborative economy at Oxford University.
“When systems that involve bartering, sharing and swapping emerge, they can be perceived as what people need to do because of lack of choice,” Botsman said. “They must shift from being seen as things people use out of necessity to things people use for broader reasons — such as convenience, efficiency and quality.”
She pointed to companies like Airbnb and Uber, which began as cheap alternatives to hotels and taxis but eventually revolutionized consumer perception of those industries.
Some network organizers have sought to jump-start activity on their platforms, bidding to attract more business participation in much the same fashion that eBay EBAY, +0.16% and Amazon AMZN, +0.26% managed to attract thousands of businesses to sell their products on their platform.
That has led to both growth and challenges. “Private corporations love the idea — but when it comes to the actual implementation, they are reluctant to let go of their euros,” said Tradenow founder Yiannis Deligiannis.
Tradenow
Tradenow founder, Yiannis Deligiannis, says getting businesses to join a barter marketplace is key to scaling it.To make it easier for companies to join, Tradenow, which features 29,000 registered members, introduced a hybrid system — in which businesses can offer their product or service priced in TradePoints, euros or a combination — in early 2015. About 400 companies use Tradenow, according to Deligiannis.
One is Spartan Security, which joined in 2014, as Greece had lost 25% of its gross domestic product after four years of economic crisis. Spartan’s hope, according to marketing manager Matina Karabatsou, was to “tap new demographics and grow its client base to counter the negative effects of the financial crisis.”
Tradenow has helped Spartan grow its client base by about 2%, according to Karabatsou. Meanwhile, the company uses TradePoints to buy cleaning services and online advertisements.
But the hybrid system has also led to complications for Tradenow: The company has honored a one-to-one exchange rate between points and euros, meaning that one point is theoretically supposed to “buy” products and services sold on the platform for one euro.
That could hurt the company, as the unofficial point-to-euro exchange rate has fallen by about 75% since it launched in late 2012. That, combined with laws that require companies to pay a 23% value-added tax, or VAT, on all revenue in euros, means companies may lose money by using points.
That makes barter a tough sell for some businesses as the economic crisis has continued to ravage business investment and loans. While optimistic, barter network representatives have been hit with a harsh reality check as the companies whose adoption is crucial to the growth of their services have moved cautiously.
“The real problem never really was the capital controls,” Deligiannis said. “Capital controls can get lifted — but if people have no capital, that makes no difference.”
This story was first published on March 29, 2016.
_______________________
Silicon Valley CA of course is leading the way as is NYC----here we have ONE WORLD UK-----we see SOUTH KOREA going money-less---all the most hyper global neo-liberal nations. It is not a coincidence that the regions tied to pushing these massive global Wall Street frauds are now indeed leading towards this MONEY-LESS SOCIETY.
There are global shouts from 99% educating as to why this is very, very, very bad ---the extreme of far-right wing authoritarian ---and it will lead to extreme wealth extreme poverty of 99% .
UK moves towards cashless society
Some of us have already done away with cash
- Hazel Sheffield
- Thursday 21 May 2015 13:30 BST
Globally, countries that almost exclusively use cash most often do so because they don’t have the infrastructure in place to support electronic payments GettyThe tooth fairy’s days are numbered.
Pocket change may soon be completely replaced by electronic payments in the UK after reports that last year, for the first time, the majority of payments were made without cash – either on the internet or phone, or through electronic payments and cheques.
The proportion of cash payments was less than half the total number of payments made last year, falling from 52 per cent in 2013 to 48 per cent in 2014 for consumers, businesses and financial organisations combined, according to the Payments Council.
Non-cash payments are expected to overtake cash payments by consumers for the first time next year. The idea of a completely cashless society is not so far off.
Some of us already cashless. Dave Birch, author of 'Identity Is The New Money' said that young, middle class women are most likely to have made the transition to electronic payments.
He said poorer people are more likely to use cash – meaning they get caught with cash machine charges and are unable to get the best deals online.
Cash is also used for money laundering and tax evasion. "Cash is bad for society in that respect," said Birch.
"In countries that are already mostly cashless such as Denmark, Finland and Sweden, the total cost to the economy of the payment system is less," said Birch.
Birch said that for the UK to become entirely cashless, the government would have to get behind the idea with policy changes.
Countries that almost exclusively use cash most often do so because they don’t have the infrastructure in place to support electronic payments. Some, like Italy and Greece, still prefer to use cash for cultural reasons.
_______________________________________________
WOW----it's all about global 1% and global banking wanting to show its 99% human capital LOVE
Know what? It would seem REALLY SPIRITUAL if those pesky global 1% and their 2% were the ones giving up the money----seems LYING, CHEATING, AND STEALING TO GET ALL THE WORLD'S MONEY----isn't having the VENUS PROJECT showing those global 1% LOVE.
The Moneyless Society – Love As The New Currency
- November 20, 2010
- Harald Sandø
- Love, Money, Ownership, Society, Spirituality, Transition
How can it be? The moneyless society. It is very difficult to imagine, but I have been trying to do just that for the last couple of years. Basically, since I heard of The Venus Project and a resource based economy.
No money would really simplify a lot of things. My whole life, basically. Well, not only mine, but everyone’s. No need to set a price on anything. No need to pay for anything.
If there were no money. I could
- Give my full concentration to what I love doing.
- Go out and help anyone who needs help without thinking about making any money.
- Travel anywhere.
- Live anywhere.
- Share whatever I want to share, with no regards to if I can ‘afford’ it or not.
- Cooperate with people wanting to make this world a better place.
- Working together with anyone who have the same interests as me.
- Creating music.
- Making films.
In other words, instead of money, one would get ‘Love’ in return for what one does. This love can be the joy one feels from doing it, the feelings of gratitude one gets from others, the feeling of completion when one finishes a task well done, or the feeling of happiness from being among the plants one has tended and now grows abundantly.
People need something in return from doing anything. And this something can be nothing less than Love in a moneyless society. Of course, one could give each other gifts and such, but what we are all after is that ultimate feeling of fulfillment, joy, happiness, bliss, excitement, or in one word: Love.
The ultimate feeling of Love (fulfillment, joy, happiness, bliss, excitement, etc) is actually what we all seek in money. We think that when we get unlimited access to money, we will feel the bliss we are missing in our lives. So, with a moneyless society it is important to be aware that what we are seeking is Love, and this love is found in all the tasks we are doing and things we are producing and sharing.
For a resource based economy to work we need to have a new currency, and this currency might just as well be Love, since this is the ultimate currency. With Love as the currency we can actually start today already. We don’t need to wait for technology to develop, or leaders to decide.
Of course, for Love to work as a currency we have to snap out of the value system we have in place today. We have to snap out of our egos, that never gives anything for free, but only asks ‘what’s in it for me?’. Well, actually, the ego can still ask ‘what’s in it for me?’ in a Love Based Society, because when one gives and shares with Love, Love will be given in return in abundance. THAT’S what’s in it for you.
Update:
When I talk about getting Love in the article, I do not mean that one gets Love back directly from the person one is giving to. One will get Love (meaning fulfillment, joy, etc…) from the act of doing itself (giving is also an act of doing), as long as it is something one has a desire to do. And then, where does that Love come from? It can only come from the Creator. And, beware, the Creator in this case, is you, or your ‘higher self’. In other words, you are giving to yourself.
So, doing something one loves doing, something that gives fulfillment and joy, is the same as ‘receiving for the sake of bestowing’. Because when one does something only for the Love of it, what else can be the reason for doing it? One is receiving fulfillment, joy, Love…for what? Of course, for the desire to be fulfilled, for the desire to fulfill the Creator, which is you. And everyone has a conscious or unconscious drive towards this, because this is the basic meaning of Life.
So, everyone is doing this all the time, because this is what brings the most fulfillment to people. But it might also be done unconsciously most of the time. And one thing that stops people from truly being conscious about this is the mindset that the monetary system has created. The mindset that say’s that ‘I have to get something back to give something to you’. It is not only the monetary system that has created this, but also the ‘survival instinct’ we all seem to have. This instinct is produced by forgetting that we are not really our human bodies, but rather eternal consciousness(es) experiencing human life.
When everyone becomes conscious about this, it will be the end of money, because no money would have to change hands anymore. Nothing would be demanded in return for anything, since the Love would be an intrinsic reward in everything. And being conscious about this and ending the monetary system goes hand in hand.
__________________________________________
This is why we shout-----watch those international labor union leaders------this scheme of money-less society and taking the Western nations down to third world level as a ONE WORLD ONE GOVERNANCE GLOBAL CORPORATE TRIBUNAL RULE came about in earnest in 1960s---1970s. This is when our labor unions went global as US corporations moved overseas.
Indeed, back in the DARK AGES trade guilds did barter because their members were so poor. This is NOT THE POPULIST REVOLUTION FOR THE 99% FOLKS----this is MOVING FORWARD global 1% --------
From Clinton era forward when US corporations went overseas en force---our labor unions went global as well----they started working for the INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION ---the United Nations branch of global corporate labor management.
WE WILL HEAR OUR INTERNATIONAL LABOR UNIONS CHAMPION BASIC INCOME----WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION HEALTH POLICY-----GLOBAL COMMONER CORE------AND THESE FAR-RIGHT WING LIBERTARIAN MARXIST LEADERS WILL PRETEND MONEYLESS BARTERING SOCIETIES ARE LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE.
Are a moneyless society and a bloodless revolution possible?; Right to Challenge;
People and Power in the Steelworkers Union.
By John Herling. 415 pp. New York: Harper & Row. $12.50
By A. H. RASKINFEB. 20, 1972
February 20, 1972, Page 6 The New York Times Archives
Behind the fraternal facade of a movement in which every carrier of a union card is automatically “brother” often rage intrigues of such malevolence that Machiavelli would be hard pressed to make business agent and Benedict Arnold, shop steward. In this fascinating book John Herling, who has devoted a lifetime to affectionate observation of labor's rise (or descent) from penury to power, provides a close‐up view of two decades of infighting in one of the country's strongest unions, the 1.2million‐member United Steelworkers of America.
The steel union was a child of the early New Deal, V.rith its accent on better break for “the forgotten man” — an accent translated in the feudal bastions of the mass‐production industries into the slogan, “President Roosevelt wants you to join a union.” But the steel union had another progenitor, the United Mine Workers, most monolithic of labor organizations, with absolute rule concentrated in its majestic president, John L. Lewis.
__________________________________________
'There have been test runs of this Rogoff-Buiter Economic Totalitarianism to see if the idea works'.
Here we see where these MONEY-LESS policies come----it is global 1% ----so if any labor and justice organization sells this as a left populist movement-----SEND THE LEADERS OF THAT ORGANIZATION PACKING.
MOVING FORWARD has the goal of pushing 99% of US citizens to unemployment------robotics---et al----and this is what global 1% want to see as a societal structure. Know what? It is easier to throw these 5% and their 1% IN JAIL------and return to being a free democratic capitalistic society-----GO LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE AND NOT FAR-RIGHT WING LIBERTARIAN MARXIST EXTREME WEALTH EXTREME POVERTY.
You can bet the global 1% and their 2% are not going money-less----remember, SMART CITIES SMART ENERGY GRID----GLOBAL BIG AG ----combined with CLIMATE CHANGE and depleted contaminated fresh water does not bode well for building any long term NEW SOCIETAL STRUCTURE especially one that shakes the foundations of several centuries of ENLIGHTENMENT-----AGE OF REASON----ANY AGE BUT THE DARK AGES.
Why The Powers That Be Are Pushing A Cashless Society
Posted on May 4, 2015 by WashingtonsBlog
We Can’t Rein In the Banks If We Can’t Pull Our Money Out of Them
Martin Armstrong summarizes the headway being made to ban cash, and argues that the goal of those pushing a cashless society is to prevent bank runs … and increase their control:
The central banks are … planning drastic restrictions on cash itself. They see moving to electronic money will first eliminate the underground economy, but secondly, they believe it will even prevent a banking crisis. This idea of eliminating cash was first floated as the normal trial balloon to see how the people take it. It was first launched by Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University and Willem Buiter, the chief economist at Citigroup. Their claims have been widely hailed and their papers are now the foundation for the new age of Economic Totalitarianism that confronts us. Rogoff and Buiter have laid the ground work for the end of much of our freedom and will one day will be considered the new Marx with hindsight. They sit in their lofty offices but do not have real world practical experience beyond theory. Considerations of their arguments have shown how governments can seize all economic power are destroy cash in the process eliminating all rights. Physical paper money provides the check against negative interest rates for if they become too great, people will simply withdraw their funds and hoard cash. Furthermore, paper currency allows for bank runs. Eliminate paper currency and what you end up with is the elimination of the ability to demand to withdraw funds from a bank.
***
In many nations, specific measures have already been taken demonstrating that the Rogoff-Buiter world of Economic Totalitarianism is indeed upon us. This is the death of Capitalism. Of course the socialists hate Capitalism and see other people’s money should be theirs. What they cannot see is that Capitalism is freedom from government totalitarianism. The freedom to pursue the field you desire without filling the state needs that supersede your own.
There have been test runs of this Rogoff-Buiter Economic Totalitarianism to see if the idea works. I reported on June 21, 2014 that Britain was doing a test run. A shopping street in Manchester banned cash as part of an experiment to see if Brits would accept a cashless society. London buses ended accepting cash payments from July 2014. Meanwhile, Currency Exchange dealers began offering debt cards instead of cash that they market as being safer to travel with. The Chorlton, South Manchester experiment was touted to test customers and business reaction to the idea for physical currency will disappear inside 20 years.
France passed another Draconian new law that from the police parissummer of 2015 it will now impose cash requirements dramatically trying to eliminate cash by force. French citizens and tourists will then only be allowed a limited amount of physical money. They have financial police searching people on trains just passing through France to see if they are transporting cash, which they will now seize. Meanwhile, the new French Elite are moving in this very same direction. Piketty wants to just take everyone’s money who has more than he does. Nobody stands on the side of freedom or on restraining the corruption within government. The problem always turns against the people for we are the cause of the fiscal mismanagement of government that never has enough for themselves.
In Greece a drastic reduction in cash is also being discussed in light of the economic crisis. Now any bill over €70 should be payable only by check or credit card – it will be illegal to pay in cash. The German Baader Bank founded in Munich expects formally to abolish the cash to enforce negative interest rates on accounts that is really taxation on whatever money you still have left after taxes.
***
Complete abolition of cash threatens our very freedom and rights of citizens in so many areas.
***
Paper currency is indeed the check against negative interest rates. We need only look to Switzerland to prove that theory. Any attempt to impose say a 5% negative interest rates (tax) would lead to an unimaginably massive flight into cash. This was already demonstrated recently by the example of Swiss pension funds, which withdrew their money from the bank in a big way and now store it in vaults in cash in order to escape the financial repression. People will act in their own self-interest and negative interest rates are likely to reduce the sales of government bonds and set off a bank run as long as paper money exists.
Obviously, government and bankers are not stupid. The only way to prevent such a global bank run would be the total prohibition of paper money. This is unlikely, both in Switzerland and in the United States because the economies are dominated there by a certain “liberalism” to some extent but also because their currencies also circulate outside their domestic economies. The fact that but the question of the cash ban in the context of a global conference with the participation of the major central banks of the US and the ECB will be discussed, demonstrates by itself that the problem is not a regional problem.
Nevertheless, there is a growing assumption that the negative interest rate world (tax on cash) is likely to increase dramatically in Europe in particular since it is socialism that is collapsing. Government in Brussels is unlikely to yield power and their line of thinking cannot lead to any solution. The negative interest rate concept is making its way into the United States at J.P. Morgan where they will charge a fee on excess cash on deposit starting May 1st, 2015. Asset holdings of cash with a tax or a fee in the amount of the negative interest rate seems to be underway even in Switzerland.
***
The movement toward electronic money is moving at high speed and this says a lot about the state of the financial system. The track record of the major financial institutions is nearly perfect – they are always caught on the wrong side when a crisis breaks, which requires their bailouts. The fact that we have already seen test runs with theory-balloons flying, the major financial institutions are in no shape to withstand another economic decline.
For depositors, this means they really need to grasp what is going on here for unless they are vigilant, there is a serious risk of losing everything. We must understand that these measures will be implemented overnight in the middle of a banking crisis after 2015.75. The balloons have taken off and the discussions are underway. The trend in taxation and reduction of cash seems to be unstoppable. Government is not prepared to reform for that would require a new way of thinking and a loss of power. That is not a consideration. They only see one direction and that is to take us into the new promised-land of economic totalitarianism.
People can’t pull cash out of their bank accounts – for political reasons, because they’ve lost confidence in the bank, or because “bail-ins” are enacted – if cash is banned.
The Financial Times argued last year that central banks would be the real winners from a cashless society:
Central bankers, after all, have had an explicit interest in introducing e-money from the moment the global financial crisis began…
***
The introduction of a cashless society empowers central banks greatly. A cashless society, after all, not only makes things like negative interest rates possible, it transfers absolute control of the money supply to the central bank, mostly by turning it into a universal banker that competes directly with private banks for public deposits. All digital deposits become base money.
The Government Can Manipulate Digital Accounts More Easily than Cash
Moreover, an official White House panel on spying has implied that the government is manipulating the amount in people’s financial accounts.
If all money becomes digital, it would be much easier for the government to manipulate our accounts.
Indeed, numerous high-level NSA whistleblowers say that NSA spying is about crushing dissent and blackmailing opponents … not stopping terrorism.
This may sound over-the-top … but remember, the government sometimes labels its critics as “terrorists“. If the government claims the power to indefinitely detain – or even assassinate – American citizens at the whim of the executive, don’t you think that government people would be willing to shut down, or withdraw a stiff “penalty” from a dissenter’s bank account?
If society becomes cashless, dissenters can’t hide cash. All of their financial holdings would be vulnerable to an attack by the government.
This would be the ultimate form of control. Because – without access to money – people couldn’t resist, couldn’t hide and couldn’t escape.
__________________________________________
We are not going to discuss the economic collapse in detail as we have ---we will remind folks of the goal of deliberately sending community banks and credit unions into bankruptcy---yes, those labor union credit unions too.
This plan moves all US citizens to only global Wall Street banks while global Wall Street banks are MOVING FORWARD to closing their brick and mortar community banks and going to ONLINE ONLY. We saw that happening with Wells Fargo as usual in CALIFORNIA. So, CA is leading in introducing BASIC INCOME---COMMONER CORE-----WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SINGLE-PAYER---ONLINE BANKING ONLY---THE MONEY-LESS SOCIETY---
When we shout at our Baltimore media to be JOURNALISTS and discuss these goals --we are told by 5% to the 1% THAT'S WHAT THEY ARE DOING IN CALIFORNIA. TRUMP didn't bring this coming economic crash it will bring strong austerity with an installed far-right wing Trump and Congress.
ALL PLANNED MOVING FORWARD---ask your CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA pol or those pesky global Wall Street Baltimore Development 'labor and justice' organizations.
The 5% and their 1% think all this is very funny-----
OH, REALLY?????
FAKE FEELING THE BERNERS-----capturing our REAL left FDR social progressive revolution. We knew Bernie may flip as an establishment candidate---don't fall for more POSERS-----let's get busy locally to stop MOVING FORWARD IN US CITIES DEEMED FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONES.
With Dow 20K passed, $20 trillion on the national debt is next
Jeff Cox | @JeffCoxCNBCcom
Wednesday, 25 Jan 2017 | 12:39 PM ETCNBC.com
Mnuchin: Honoring U.S. debt most important thing
Thursday, 19 Jan 2017 | 12:27 PM ET | 04:27
While Wall Street celebrates the Dow hitting 20,000, there is another "20" looming that could carry significantly darker overtones.
The U.S. is just weeks away from passing the $20 trillion mark in total public debt outstanding — the "national debt," as it is more widely known.
Though general concern about containing debt and deficits has waned as the nation has looked for ways to stimulate the sluggish, post-recession economy, that $20 trillion milestone could grab at least some attention.
"While the party hats are out for 20K on the Dow, that $20 trillion in debt is really salient," said economist and debt hawk Michael Pento of Pento Portfolio Strategies. Pento has been predicting a bond market crash that would come with a collapse in demand and the weight of eventually rising rates that will push up the cost to finance American debt.
Debt nearly doubled under former President Barack Obama, who presided over it mushrooming from $10.6 trillion to $19.9 trillion by the time he left office last week. Though he's only been in office for less than a week, President Donald Trump has seen the debt rise another $2 billion.
"It has become all too commonplace to borrow not for productive investments or for wherever we are in the business cycle ... but because people don't want to pay the bills and have found it politically expedient not to do so." -Maya MacGuineas, president, Committee for a Responsible Federal BudgetThe current total as of Monday, in exact numbers, is $19,949,687,366,998, according to the Treasury Department. With the U.S. expected to run a budget deficit in 2017 of $559 billion, the $50.3 billion or so needed to break $20 trillion should happen relatively soon.
"The massive debt is really a reflection of the unwillingness of our political leaders to make any tough decisions or deal with trade-offs," Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a phone interview. "It has become all too commonplace to borrow not for productive investments or for wherever we are in the business cycle ... but because people don't want to pay the bills and have found it politically expedient not to do so."
There are two numbers at play when talking about the national debt — debt held by the public and intragovernmental holdings. The latter debt includes money the government essentially owes itself, like when the Treasury borrows from other funds to make entitlement payments. That total is about $5.5 trillion, while the public debt, which includes all other government debt, is $14.4 trillion.
RSS Feed
